Many homes and businesses today generally have fences around a portion of their property. For example, for homes with pools in their backyards, many state laws mandate fences be erected surrounding the area about the pool to restrict access thereto by children and unauthorized third parties. Most fences do, however, include a gate to enable access to the enclosed area from outside the fence. Many fence gates are secured with a latch or similar closure mechanism that typically includes a hook or latch bar that engages and is captured within a corresponding latching mechanism mounted on a fence post adjacent the gate.
Additionally, it generally is desirable that the latching mechanisms for most conventional fence gates be accessible from one or both sides of the fence in order to enable opening of the gate as needed. For example, many gates will have a handle on one side or the other side of the gate that has a mechanism to engage and open the latch to enable opening of the gate. The problem that exists with such conventional gate latch assemblies, however, is that the necessity for such latch assemblies to be accessible and easy to use also makes them accessible and easy to use by children. This can pose potential dangers such as when children open the gate and gain access to a backyard pool without supervision or put themselves in danger by being attacked by animals such as guard dogs or otherwise being injured when they trespass in dangerous areas.
A simple solution generally has been to lock the gate with a padlock, key lock or similar locking mechanism. However, this severely restricts access through the gate, requiring that those persons needing and authorized to have access to the enclosed, fenced area have a key or know the combination for the lock. In addition, locking the gate back after each use often is not consistently done by the users, either because they forget, the lock malfunctions, or they need continued access and therefore it is not practical to lock the gate. For example, for businesses such as car lots, etc. having fenced-in lots or storage areas, it is often not practical for them to lock the gate for such areas every time a user enters or exists the gated area. Likewise, for homeowners who desire or need more frequent passage into their fenced-in areas, such as for access to their backyard by a yard service, it is not practical to lock the fence gate after every use.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a child-proof gate latch assembly that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.